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Review Summary

Filmed mostly in shades of gray, this sleek, desolate fable about the conflict between corporate values and human needs gives the upscale ethos that engulfs its characters a bleak palette all its own. The central character, Christoffer (Ulrich Thomsen), forsakes a carefree life in Stockholm to assume control of his family's floundering steel works after his father commits suicide. Part of the story revolves around the tug of war between his domineering mother (Ghita Norby) and his beautiful wife (Lisa Werlinder), who puts her promising acting career on hold to move from Stockholm to Copenhagen. "The Inheritance" reminds you in painful detail that one of the tasks of a financially responsible executive is to execute. As he turns the business around, his decisions tear apart his family and erode his marriage. You can read the Danish film as an unsettling parable about any corporation, or, for that matter, any country forced to take stringent financial measures to avoid catastrophe. For all the pain he inflicts, Christoffer might even be seen as a self-sacrificing hero. But as the morose movie shows, a corporate hero is many ways the antithesis of a humanitarian. — Stephen Holden